Exit sparks anger

Wednesday

May 21, 2014 at 7:52 PMMay 21, 2014 at 7:52 PM

By Lindsey O’Donnelllhodonnell@wickedlocal.com

A small crowd gathered during Monday’s School Committee meeting to hear officials discuss protests and speculation surrounding a music teacher’s recent resignation.School officials spent an hour discussing the matter behind closed doors before emerging to say that the Blanchard Middle School music teacher, David Lussier, was not forced to resign.Superintendent Everett "Bill" Olsen said he met with Lussier over the last few weeks, along with Blanchard Middle School Principal Robin Whitney and Westford Academy union representative Robert Therrien, and "thoroughly" discussed the situation with each of them."Based on these interviews… I determined that Mr. Lussier was not dismissed and was not forced to resign," said Olsen. "[He] will resign from employment at the end of the school year, and I have accepted his resignation."The executive session, which Lussier did not attend, came on the heels of complaints from parents about the teacher’s resignation during April 7 and May 5 School Committee meetings.Olsen said he would not comment further on reasons behind the resignation due to privacy issues.The School Committee also offered no further information."The committee is limited in what it can say publicly," said Chairman David Keele. "We have a legal obligation to protect the privacy of Mr. Lussier."Though parents filled part of the room to listen to the results of the executive session, only a few spoke after the committee made its statement."Anyone who had a hand in having Mr. Lussier leave the school system should be ashamed," said resident Yvonne Cekel. "This is a travesty."After the meeting, Olsen said he is exploring various options for replacing Lussier, such as candidates for both full-time or part-time positions."The new position will not have any reduction of time around students," said Olsen.Lussier has worked as a music teacher at Blanchard for 14 years and was the originator of the West Street Serenaders, an auditioned vocal group of 12 students ages 11 to 14.FingerprintingA new state mandate orders school systems to have all their employees fingerprinted, in order to discover if employees have been involved in legal issues in other states."I’m very much in favor of this," said Olsen, adding that the new system would present a "sizeable change."He said that all employees would get fingerprinted effective immediately, and that he was scheduled to have his done in June.The School Committee approved the first version of a draft mandating that all staff members should be informed of their fingerprinting procedures in advance.Olsen added that the current Criminal Offender Record Information form only informs employers if staff members have been engaged in illegal activities just within the state.Follow Lindsey O’Donnell on Twitter @lhodonnellWL and the Westford Eagle @Westford_eagle